There is considerable interest in the semiconductor industry in evaluating small features of periodic structures on the surface of a sample. In current high-density semiconductor chips, line widths or feature sizes are as small as 0.1 microns. These feature sizes are too small to be measured directly with conventional optical approaches. This is so because the line widths are smaller than the probe beam spot size which can be achieved with most focusing systems.
This problem is illustrated in FIG. 1 which shows a wafer 10 having formed thereon a number of conductive lines 12. A probe beam 14 is shown focused by a lens 20 onto the sample at a spot 16. The reflected beam is measured by a photodetector 18. As can be seen, spot 16 overlaps multiple lines 12 and therefore cannot be used to measure distances between lines or the thickness of the lines themselves.
To overcome this problem, sophisticated software programs have been developed which analyze the reflected probe beam in terms of a scattering model. More specifically, it is understood that critical dimensions or feature profiles on the surface of the wafer will cause some level of scattering of the reflected probe beam light. If this scattering pattern is analyzed, information about the critical dimensions can be derived. This approach has been called specular scatterometry. The algorithms use various forms of modeling approaches including treating the lines as an optical grating. These algorithms attempt to determine the geometry of the periodic structure.
FIG. 2 schematically illustrates the geometry of one type of periodic structure 24. This periodic structure can be analyzed in terms of the width W between the features and the depth D of the grooves. In addition, the shape or profile P of the side walls of the features can also be analyzed by the current algorithms operating on the analytical data.
To date, these analytical programs have been used with data taken from conventional spectroscopic reflectometry or spectroscopic ellipsometry devices. In addition, some efforts have been made to extend this approach to analyzing data from simultaneous multiple angle of incidence systems. In these systems, the spot size is relatively small, but still larger than the individual features of the periodic structure. Paradoxically, where the features are only slightly smaller than the spot size, analysis through scatterometry is difficult since not enough of the repeating structure is covered by the spot. Accordingly, it would be desirable to modify the system so a sufficient number of individual features are measured so a good statistically based, scatterometry analysis can be performed.